The finance will be provided by Taiheiyo Kouhatsu and New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), a subsidiary of the Japanese Government’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, under the strategic alliance agreement.
NEDO/Taiheiyo will provide funding to cover the cost of drilling, sampling, analysis and full geological and geophysical logging and will also drill 30 cored, coal quality holes at The Range.
As a part of the agreement,Taiheiyo Kouhatsu will be able to acquire 400,000 tons of total coal supply over the first three years of production for distribution to its Japanese customers.
The coal project contains an initial JORC Marketable Reserve of 94 million tons (Mt) from a JORC Total Resource of 260Mt of export quality thermal coal.
The Range project remains on track for first coal in 2015, subject to statutory approvals being attained and completion of third party infrastructure.
